Horrendous news. Felicia Day just Twittered that the season finale of Dollhouse won't air. This episode not only features Day, but Whedonverse MVP Alan Tudyk in a key role. Spoilers below. Update: More details added.

Man, day getting worse and worse. Found out my Dollhouse ep, #13 isn't gonna air. Only on DVD. Such a great part too. Thx Fox. :(

I'm especially bummed now that I know her role wasn't just a brief cameo, but a "great part." But also. This was supposed to be the episode that introduced us to the mysterious Alpha, a former Doll who went rogue - and who's reportedly played by the amazing Alan Tudyk. Yes, we'll eventually see it on DVD, but it would have been classier of Fox to air it, instead of another rerun of The Amazing Drunk-Dialing Sewer Rats Go Dancing With The Idols.

Advertisement

And yes, this probably does mean that Dollhouse is seriously canceled.

Update: The Hollywood Reporter says that Fox is insisting that Dollhouse is not canceled after all. They just don't feel like airing the season finale. From Fox's standpoint, the network ordered 13 episodes of the show, and Joss shot two pilots. So if you count both pilots as episodes, then the 12 aired episodes complete Fox's order.

Apparently, the final episode which will air, "Omega," represents Joss' original vision for the end of the season, so we won't feel a lack of closure. But the actual unaired season finale, "Epitaph One," is directed by Joss himself and is his actual final statement. Worst of all, it's not actually certain that the episode will appear on DVD or elsewhere - nothing's decided yet, and Fox may decide not to pay for post-production on the episode.

Okay. So maybe I can help clarify this somewhat. Because we scrapped the original pilot — and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps — we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it's awesome.